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Tom Schantz: Bill McCartney would bring respectability back to CU football program

Posted:
11/28/2012 01:00:00 AM MST

Given that it takes four to five years to rebuild a football program, the firing of Coach Jon Embree after only two seasons is obviously going to make it difficult, if not impossible, to lure a talented new coach to Boulder. How many major coaches will want to take on a project like the University of Colorado if they start out knowing they've only got two years to get the job done?

Obviously, Embree and staff were not up to the challenge, at least in the short haul. Players continued to make dumb mistakes on the field, the kind of mistakes for which coaches have to take responsibility. And bringing in a proved mediocre quarterback like Jordan Webb instead of developing the ones already on the team was a mistake virtually anyone should have seen coming.

While I think Embree should have been given a minimum of one more year, that's now a dead issue. CU has three choices. Empty the bank account to acquire (steal) a major coach from another team, decide to take the Pac-12 money and spend it on other sports, including the addition of women's softball, or hire Bill McCartney to come in for two or three years to lend, if nothing else, respectability to the program, just as Bill Snyder did at Kansas State.

I wouldn't count on McCartney delivering another national championship but he might be able to lay the groundwork for a program, perhaps using the Stanford model, that any quality coach would be glad to take over.

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